A LOCAL councillor has slammed the "pack of animals" who seriously assaulted a teenager with an axe in Bradford.

The incident occurred at around 8.10pm on Tuesday when eight unknown males, described as wearing black clothing and balaclavas with one person wearing a fur hooded top, began chasing a 16-year-old in Ramsden Avenue.

Once the yobs caught up with him, he was then assaulted, with one male believed to be using an axe.

The scene was only brought to an end when a member of the public disturbed the males and they all made off on foot.

Great Horton Ward Councillor Joanne Dodds was outraged when she first heard the news and labelled the incident "absolutely horrendous".

"Those gang of males were acting like a pack of animals," she said.

"To hunt him down and attack with a weapon, an axe, is unacceptable.

"It is absolutely horrendous. My thoughts go out to the young victim. I wish him a speedy recovery.

"It sounds to me that it was a targeted attack. It doesn’t sound random.

"I haven’t heard of anything else like this in this area.

"We can’t have this in our community, this type of attack on a young person. He will probably struggle with this for the rest of his life now."

The Labour Councillor urges people with any information to come forward immediately before this sort of attack happens again and potentially proves fatal.

She added: "Even if this is just the first one, we need to catch these people before they do it again. Next time it might be fatal.

"I certainly appeal to anyone to come forward that might have some information.

"Plenty of houses now have CCTV, so I urge them to look to see if they have caught anybody surrounding that area.

"Escaping the scene they may have taken their balaclavas off. We must find these people.

"The police will be stepping up patrols and the reassurance work they need to do.

"We need the community to work with us and try identify these people."

Officers are appealing for information to try and identify the individuals, who may be able to assist with enquiries.

Police are also keen to hear from anyone who may have CCTV, camera doorbells or dashcam footage to get in touch.

Anyone with information is asked to contact 101, quoting crime reference number 13220072446 or online via www.westyorkshire.police.uk/101livechat.